David

The first comma butterfly that stayed still long enough for me to get its picture this year. It was resting on the ground, spreading its wings to warm up in the sun.

Some years, the flowering of all the blackthorns is synchronised. Blackthorn hedges briefly look, from a distance, like they are covered in some kind of white foam.

In other years, like this one, the process is more spread out. Some sections of hedges like the one in the Barley Field will be fully out, while other sections have buds which are just developing.

These pictures are all from that hedge in the Barley Field, and cover just over one week in April.

A couple of strolls recently along the bridleway by the side of the Pool Hall Fisheries, with no sign of the great crested grebes which used to breed there every year. Perhaps they had been disturbed by the latest device being used by one of the anglers (pictured below), which showed clearly as it crossed the water.

Walking on a little further, however, meant we did spot a pair of the grebes on the nearby private angling pool of the J.Sankey company at Dimmingsdale. As we watched from a vantage point on the canal towpath, the pair spent most of their time on or near a nest under a willow. Occasionally, one or both of them ventured out into open water to fish.

Hawthorn flowers, sometimes known as may. These pictures were taken mid-April, when bushes in the most favoured spots were developing buds and the first few flowers had just opened. For some reason, the subject seemed timely now.

Kestrel hunting, hovering over the Barley Field.

Kestrels used to be quite a likely sight in the Smestow valley, but this is the first one I’ve seen for over a decade.

Some of its tail feathers were missing, but that didn’t seem to be giving it any problems.

Its technique of hovering meant I go off a lot of shots of the bird.

Among the first of the wildflowers which are now encouraged on the Smestow Valley’s Barley Field, a few cowslips look a little sind-battered.